Asgardian Justice
by Anonymercy
Summary: A short fic on Loki's return to Asgard post-movie. Prompt: Drowning


**I. Drowning**

(Setting: Loki post-captivity, on his way to his prison cell.)

The Other and his Chitauri army had failed him. Searching through his (very few) plans, Loki Laufeyson mentally picked at every single flaw his plan had. _If only I had not put so much confidence in that pathetic army,_ he thought. In his frustration he barely felt the mask encase his jaw and felt little difference than wearing perhaps a cloth mask or that heavy, green scarf he donned at the dance in Stuttgart. The pleasurable rush (he had never known why it was pleasurable to him, as others hated it) from the teleportation eased his irritated mood as it brought him to a quickly-repaired Bifröst. The thick, golden rays from the Asgardian sun plagued his heavy body, and it hit him like the reality of his failure hit him at that same moment. A strangely chilling breeze brushed through his hair while he paced forward, led by the king of Asgard, towards his prison.

He broke into a cold sweat.

The king's mother and severely aging father, who had woken up temporarily from his sleep, peered at him from the sides. They kept questioning his actions and apologizing at the same time, and it made Loki's skin crawl underneath his leather wear.

"Why did you do it, honey?"

"I'm so sorry."

"I thought it was for the best!"

"How could you?!"

"Do you know not that you too are our son?!"

He strode onward with a brisk pace in hopes of losing the voices behind him. The former king looked centuries older than when he had last seen him. Or could it be one of his own tricks? He swallowed and blinked a few times before he met the crowd. The fallen god hesitated before the swarm of wrath which looked upon him.

This crowd was nothing like the lively mobs of mortals who bustled about, yelling and carrying on with their tasks. No, this was a unified body of hatred. Their cold stares invaded his privacy in conjunction with the hot sun. Suddenly, Loki remembered that he was not a true Asgardian. Alienated, he found his mask increasingly harder to breathe through. What he had done should not have been of any concern to them! This petty alliance with Earth should never had happened! It was the fault of that damn mortal woman and her sly tricks of seduction!

The king's mother and severely aging father managed to catch up to him from behind as he waded slowly through the thick, quiet mass of strangers. Their voices had stopped, but their silence synchronized with the silence of the crowd.

He wanted to pull on his mask in hopes of having some cool air circulate through, but his hands were weighed down by the stares. Were the chains always this heavy? _Push through, push through, it is almost over and then I may rest in my cell_, he reassured himself. The harsh heat of judgment was smothering him and every step was slower and heavier than the previous. His eyes were barely open, blinded by the eternal sunset of Asgard, yet they strained to keep him conscious under the heat. A particular sweat down his left temple distracted him, and it was only until he felt the tug of the king that he realized he had stopped in his tracks. He resumed, only to find the warriors of whatever standing at the top of the marble staircase. His knees buckled in fatigue.

The king's hand placed on his back guided him forward mid-faint and he trudged forward. Their stares raised goosebumps on every inch of his skin and he mustered what little energy, both physically and psychologically, he had left and strode past them with his eyes focused on the painted floor tiles.

But he couldn't.

Loki Laufeyson turned around to begin walking back to the Bifröst, but the swarm had followed him. He met his punishment, the accusations of the people. He darted his eyes around to avoid the stares and ended up focusing them on the swollen, red lids of the king's severely aging mother and severely aging father. The eyes of his Odin and Frigga, his parents, filled his heart with uncomfortable despair as the crowd looked on with a wrath that embedded itself agonizingly into every fiber of his body. He felt the stares of Lady Sith and the Warriors Three pierce his armor and latched painfully on his back. In desperation, he turned away from it all, only to meet his brother's worried eyes. Thor's mouth were saying something, but it was incomprehensible. All was a blur.

Loki Laufeyson collapsed on the staircase at suppertime.

.

.

.

* * *

_Fin. I don't read the actual comics, so I'm not even sure if anything remotely close happens to this. All characters belong to Marvel anyway. Just tying up some loose ends after the movie._


End file.
